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Caroline Bowles Southey
Caroline Anne Bowles Southey (December 6, 1786 - July 20, 1854), was an English poet who married Poet Laureate Robert Southey. Life Overview Daughter of a captain in the navy, she submitted a poem, Ellen Fitzarthur to Southey, which led to a friendship, and to a proposed joint poem on Robin Hood (not, however, carried out), and eventually to her becoming the poet's 2nd wife. She wrote various other works, including Chapters on Churchyards and Tales of the Factories.John William Cousin, "Southey, Mrs. Caroline Anne," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 350. Wikisource, Web, Mar. 3, 2018. Youth and education Southey was born Caroline Anne Bowles, at Lymington, Hampshire, on 7 October 1786, and baptized on 10 January 1787 in Lymington church (parish register). Her father, Captain Charles Bowles of the East India Company, appears to have retired soon after her birth, and to have bought and settled at Buckland Cottage, a small, old-fashioned house enveloped in elms. Here she grew up with him, her mother, Anne (daughter of George Burrard, and sister of General Sir Harry Burrard, her maternal grandmother, and her great-grandmother.Garnett, 282. Career The mother died in 1816, and her death, which left Caroline alone in the world, was followed by loss of property through the dishonesty of a guardian. Fortunately her father had an adopted son, Colonel Bruce, then resident at Bushire, who, hearing of her misfortunes, insisted on settling an annuity of £150 upon her, and regretted that she would accept no more. She was thus enabled to preserve her cottage, which, but for one short and sad episode, continued to be her home for life. While in apprehension of poverty she had resolved to support herself if possible by her pen, and had sent a manuscript poem to Robert Southey, encouraged by his kindness to Henry Kirke White. Southey wrote back to her: "You have the eye, the ear, and the heart of a poetess." Southey thought well of the poem, and recommended it to John Murray, who also admired, but would not publish. It was eventually brought out anonymously by Longman under the title of Ellen Fitzarthur: A metrical tale (London, 1820, 8vo). Like most of her works, it is a simple tale whose strength is in its pathos. The Widow's Tale, and other poems (1822, 12mo) marked an advance in poetic art. Southey, who had become warmly interested in his correspondent, met her for the 1st time in 1820, and proposed that she should assist in his projected poem of Robin Hood. Not much came of the partnership, owing to Southey's stress of occupation and Caroline's inability to master the rhymeless stanza of Thalaba, in which the poem was to be composed; a fragment, however, was eventually published after Southey's death (Robin Hood, with other fragments, London, 1847, 8vo).Garnett, 283. She visited Southey at Keswick, and the visit was mutually agreeable, although, engrossed in his books, he delegated the office of escorting her about the country to Wordsworth. Solitary Hours (1826, 8vo), a mixture of prose and verse, succeeded, and was followed by the work which has given Caroline her chief literary reputation, Chapters on Churchyards, a series of tales originally published in Blackwood's Magazine, and issued in a complete form in 1829. Though very unpretending, these are frequently both powerful and pathetic. In 1823 she anticipated Mrs. Norton's and Mrs. Browning's protests against the ill-treatment of workmen by her Tales of the Factories, powerful if somewhat exaggerated verse. In 1836 she published her longest and most ambitious poem, The Birthday, which led Henry Nelson Coleridge, in his celebrated article on the "Modern Nine" in the Quarterly Review for September 1840, to characterize her as "the Cowper of our modern poetesses." She was also, he thought, the most English; and, indeed, few English poetesses have had less foreign experience, for she rarely quit "my, our, dear New Forest." until, Marriage In June 1839, she took the most momentous step of her life in accepting the fast-failing Southey's offer of marriage. Their correspondence of 20 years, published by Professor Dowden in 1881, attests their entire congeniality; but Southey's state of health should have forbidden what might have been fitting under different circumstances. Southey and Bowles were married in 1840. Southey became senile soon after, unable to read, write, or talk, and died in 1843. The hopeless decay of Southey's faculties became apparent within 3 months of the marriage, and rendered his wife's situation miserable. Caroline is entitled to honor for her devotion; it is not, however, true, as was stated in an obituary notice in the Athenæum, that "she consented to unite herself to him with a sure prevision of the awful condition of mind to which he would shortly be reduced," the contrary having been proved by Dowden from her own letters (Dennis, Robert Southey, 442). Her stepchildren, with whom she was compelled to live, detested her (cf. Mrs. Bray, Autobiogr.) She is barely mentioned in Cuthbert Southey's edition of his father's correspondence — a book at which she refused so much as to look. With Mrs. Edith Warter, Southey's eldest daughter, and her husband, however, who did not live at Keswick, she was always on affectionate terms; and the valuable collection of Southey's correspondence, published by Warter in 1856, came from her hands. Southey's death must have been as great a release to her as to himself — "the last three years have done upon me the work of twenty," she wrote to Lydia Sigourney. Cuthbert Southey, took control of his father's literary estate, with Caroline retaining only the right to publish Robin Hood.Anne Zanzucchi, Caroline Bowles Southey 1786-1854, Robbins Library Digital Projects, University of Rochester. Web, Nov. 18, 2013. She returned to her beloved Buckland, and wrote no more. Southey, while behaving with perfect justice towards his children, left her £2,000, but this was far from compensating for the loss of Colonel Bruce's annuity, forfeited by her marriage. She died on 20 July 1854, and was buried at Lymington. Writing Bowles's gifts were rather those of a story-teller than of a poet, and her poetry is generally the better the nearer it approaches to prose. Her strength is in the expression of pathetic feeling, which she conveys effectively in prose or blank verse, but less so in lyric, which usually lacks musical impulse, and, like much feminine poetry, is over-fluent and deficient in concentration. Her descriptions, whether in prose or verse, frequently possess much beauty. Neither in prose nor in verse is Caroline Southey strong enough to maintain a high place. She will probably be best remembered by her connection with Southey and by her share in the volume of his correspondence edited by Professor Dowden. His part is the more important, but Caroline's letters prove that she possessed more liveliness and satiric talent than might have been expected from the author of Chapters on Churchyards. She was diminutive, and had suffered from small-pox; the portrait prefixed to edition of her correspondence is, however, by no means unprepossessing. Recognition A crown pension of £200 was conferred upon her in 1852. Her poem "To Death" was included in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900."To Death," Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900 (edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch). Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1919. Bartleby.com, Web, May 6, 2012. In popular culture The BBC made a televised drama on the romance between Caroline Bowles and Robert Southey, The Fly and the Eagle.Owlpen Today, http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Owlpen_Manor, Absolute Astronomy. Web, Nov. 19, 2013. Publications Poetry *''Ellen Fitzarthur: A metrical tale, in five cantos. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1820. *''The Widow's Tale: A poem, in four parts. London: privately printed by W. Johnston, 1822. *''The Widow's Tale, and other poems. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees , Orme, and Brown, 1822. *Solitary Hours'' . Edinburgh: William Blackwood / London: T. Cadell, 1826. *''The Birth-day: A poem, in three parts: To which are added, Occasional verses. Edinburgh: William Blackwood / London: T. Cadell, 1836. *Gems Selected from the Poems of Caroline Bowles. Boston: Light, 1836. *Autumn Flowers, and other poems. Boston: Saxton, Peirce / New York: Saxton & Miles, 1844. *Robin Hood: A fragment; With other fragments and poems'' (with Robert Southey). Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood, 1847. *''The Floral Wreath of Autumn Flowers. 4th edition, Detroit: Derby, Miller, 1848. *The Poetical Works of Caroline Bowles Southey. Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood, 1867. Fiction *Chapters on Churchyards. (2 volumes), Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood, 1829. ''Volume I, Volume II. *''Tales of the Factories''. Edinburgh : William Blackwood, 1833 *''The Early Called, The Stoic, and The Lansbys of Lansby Hall. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, & Blanchard, 1836. *''Harmless Johnny; or, The poor outcast of reason (edited by Dora Greenwell). London: Strahan, 1866. Non-fiction *''Olympia Morata: Her times, life and writings, arranged from contemporary and other authorities. London: Smith, Elder, 1834. Juvenile *''Mornings with Mama; or, Dialogues on Scripture for young persons,from ten to fourteen years of age. Edinburgh: William Blackwood / London: T. Cadell, 1830. *''The Cat's Tail: Being the history of Childe Merlin''. Edinburgh: William Blackwood / London: T. Cadell, 1831. Collected editions *''Selected Literary Works: Prose and verse. Hartford, CT: S. Andrus, 1851. Letters and journals *The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles: To which are added: Correspondence with Shelley, and Southey's dreams'' (edited by Edward Dowden). Dublin: Hodges, Figgis / London: Longmans, Green, 1881. *''Papers of Caroline Bowles (1787 i.e. 1786-1854) and Robert Southey (1774-1843) from the British Library, London''. Marlborough, UK: Adam Matthews, 2001. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Caroline Bowles Southey, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Nov. 19, 2013. See also * List of British poets References * Virginia Blain, Caroline Bowles Southey, 1786-1854: the making of a woman writer (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998) * . Wikisource, Mar. 3, 2018. * Dennis Low,'' The Literary Protégées of the Lake Poets'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006) * Patrica Sibley, Caroline and Robert: a Laureate’s Romance (Isle of Wight: Hunnyhill Publications, 1997) Notes External links ;Poems *"To Death" *"The Young Gray Head" *Caroline (Bowles) Southey in Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century: "The Primrose," "The Pauper's Death Bed," "The Christian Mariner's Hymn," "To a Dying Infant" * Caroline Anne Bowles Southey at PoemHunter (7 poems) ;Books * Caroline Bowles Southey at the Online Books Page. ;About *Caroline Bowles Southey at the University of Rochester *Critical and Biographical Essay in Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century] * Southey, Caroline Anne Category:1786 births Category:1854 deaths Category:People from Lymington Category:English poets Category:English women writers Category:Women poets Category:19th-century poets Category:19th-century women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Poets